I may pick Battles‘ “Atlas” as my best album of 2007 (over Feist) if only because it’s made me think more than any other album in recent memory. Apparently it’s done the same for many other music journalists as well, and they’ve spawned the best articles, quotes and videos about them I’ve seen in a […]
September 13, 2007
You could say I am a Bloc Party concert connoisseur, having seen the British band about six times since 2005. So I will say this: the band seemed pretty hyped to be playing for the first time ever in Wisconsin. (With the help of a couple of Red Bulls and a Pokemon stuffed toy onstage.) […]
September 10, 2007
We were drinking at Penguin Cafe in Manila one night in the ’90s. I think Jasmine Cabrera, BenCab’s daughter, was visiting from London, or maybe it was Mika Oshima, Neil’s daughter, from New York. My sister was there, and Kidlat (brother of Kawayan, progeny of filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik and Katrin de Guia, and a more […]
September 9, 2007
Last night I was telling Sonya I had recorded an E.P. once upon a time. (Actually if you count my old band’s demo that we sold at shows that would be TWO E.P.’s! heh.) Anyway I found it online. It was recorded by Khavn De La Cruz. I actually don’t have my own copy anywhere.
September 4, 2007
If (or more likely when) I am eventually asked that question, my mind will flit through images of the hulking building that is called the Cultural Center of the Philippines, plein artists painting bay sunsets, streetlights of proton pink and neutron blue, looking inevitably like gigantic lollipops along Roxas Blvd., looming clouds of diesel engine […]
August 28, 2007
Rufus Wainwright’s show at the Pabst Theater last night was sort of like a vacation into an exotic, foreign country. It was mezmerizing, sexy, sometimes uncomfortable and tiring but constantly surprising. Because he was shooting the show for a DVD, he apologized in advance for doing some of the songs over. But to the enthusiastic […]
August 25, 2007
Maybe it’s ironic that I went to see Rage with three Phish heads (thanks, Adam, Don and Bert!), but as we waited on the freeway exit where cars were bumpered up for miles, trudged across the muddy parking lots, encountered fanatics wearing concert t-shirts from 1997, 1998, 1995, with every step, I understood. It wasn’t […]
August 24, 2007
Lead actor Thomas Dillon sums up the 90-minute-monologue/play “Thom Pain (based on nothing),” thusly: “It’s about a young man who wants to share an epiphany he’s recently had, with whoever wants to listen to it. That epiphany is today is the day you start living your life,” he said. An actor since he attended the […]
August 16, 2007
Other than describing a crazy dream I just had, here are some things I never EVER thought I’d see together for real: Perry Farrell…free show…Beans and Barley parking lot…Milwaukee. But yes, the Lollapalooza founder, Satellite Party lead singer, ex-Jane’s Addiction and Porno for Pyros frontman, took his whole band –and his supporting act, Mink– to […]
August 10, 2007
So today I was on a transatlantic phone call with David Brown, lead singer of Brazzaville. Brown, who’s toured with Beck and has done various music projects for over 20 years, played the Midwest for the first time last April. I guess he liked it, because on Sept. 15 he’s coming back to Milwaukee to […]
September 17, 2007
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